(Not Applicable)
(Not Applicable)
The present invention relates generally to a storage container, and more particularly, to a basket for storing infant feeding accessories and pacifiers, suitable for use in a dishwasher.
Infant bottle feeding accessories and parts such as nipples, collars, sealing discs and valves require constant cleaning and sanitizing. These items are typically made of plastic and silicone and can be cleaned by various means such as scrub brushes, dishwasher baskets, self-contained plastic appliances with internal heating elements, and/or boiling in water. Using scrub brushes to hand wash the bottle feeding accessories is very laborious. Also, various sizes of the scrub brushes are required for different accessories to provide thorough cleaning. Normally, before sterilizing and boiling water, the bottle accessories must be manually cleaned in advance to remove the tough residual formula baby buildup. The self-contained plastic appliances with internal heating elements, though automatically cleaning and sterilizing the bottle accessories, are very costly and have very limited capacity. Typically, such self-contained plastic appliances can accommodate only a maximum of six bottles at once. Further, after the infants grow older and the bottle accessories are not used any more, such appliances cannot be used for other applications and are therefor not economical.
The prior art dishwasher baskets allow bottle accessories to be cleaned in a normal household dishwasher. The dishwasher baskets are normally relatively inexpensive and can be used for storing other utensils and small kitchenware after the infants grow up. Currently, several types of containers and other types of supports have been proposed. For example, a nipple rack formed of a wire or plastic frame construction has heretofore been used to receive a plurality of nipples disposed in a linear array. Such prior art nipple racks are designed for holding the nipples only and are typically not suitable for holding pacifiers and other accessaries of the baby bottles such as collars and cap rings. The prior art devices designed for holding collars have the similar drawback of being inadequact for holding other articles. In addition, such prior art devices require undue manipulation of the collars to provide a secured storage during the dishwasher cycle. Other prior art basket devices for holding all the bottle accessories including nipples, collars, sealing discs, lids, valves, and pacifiers in the common compartment have also been developed. These devices, although holding the articles securely in the dishwasher, different articles can be present in random orientations in the same compartment resulting in residual water being maintained in various articles after the drying cycle.
Therefore a substantial need in the art exists to provide a container that can hold various types of accessories for baby bottles as well as pacifiers while providing proper washing and cleaning effects for such different articles.
The present invention provides a dishwasher basket, comprising an upper compartment and a lower compartment removably attached to each other. Both the upper compartment and lower compartment are made of heat resistant, preferably polymer plastic material with a plurality of openings allowing water to flow freely therethrough. The upper compartment includes a basket compartment adapted to provide a common storage area for general bottle accessories such as collars, sealing caps, and pacifiers. The sidewalls of the basket have an extension which extends below the bottom surface to define an open space under its bottom surface. The lower compartment includes two parallel trays connected by a central ridge portion. The central ridge portion is preferably sized to extend above the rims of the parallel trays, such that the tips of the nipples stored in the trays rest on the rims. A pair of engaging means are formed extending from the opposing rims to engage with the extension formed on the lower surface of the upper basket. While attaching the lower compartment and the upper compartment, the tips of the nipples are slightly compressed, such that the nipples will be maintained in an inclined orientation most advantageous for proper cleaning and drying and will not shift during the dishwasher cleaning cycle.
Preferably, the basket is placed on the top shelf or rack and positioned over the water jet source in the dishwasher. The nipples thus rest in the trays on an angular inclination relative to the water jet. Further, the tips of the nipples resting in the rims point relatively upwardly, and the open ends of the nipples face relatively downwardly, so that the water jet can contact the inside of the nipple to significantly enhance the cleaning effect and allow proper drying.
The basket may further comprise a spinning storage compartment disposed between the parallel trays of the lower compartment and under the bottom surface of the upper compartment, which may be used to store small articles such as valves of toddler training cups which are difficult to clean. To vary the angular orientation of the valves contained in the spinning storage compartment relative to the water jet, at least one paddle wheel/rotor is mounted to the spinning storage compartment which rotates to agitate and turn the valves.